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Would Wash-Off Labels Improve Glass and Plastic Recycling?

Post-industrial plastic recycling is a profitable industry. On the other hand, post-consumer plastic recycling is a money-losing proposition. Could the industry change things by utilizing wash-off labels? The labels already exist for both glass and plastic. They just are not utilized all that often.

The idea behind wash-off labels is to reduce material contamination. Under most municipal recycling programs, contaminated materials are sent to landfills. But here is the dirty little secret: a little bit of contamination can spoil an entire load. So anything that can be done to reduce contamination should theoretically improve recycling efforts. Enter wash-off labels.

A Little Hot Water

A Waste Dive article published in mid-July 2023 highlighted an innovative wash-off label that is now available mostly in Europe. The label is actually a two-layer label with all the ink embedded in between the layers. It is a revolutionary design that keeps ink and other contaminants from getting into the water when bottles are washed.

Speaking of water, it is all a manufacturer needs to remove labels from recycled bottles. Briefly soaking the bottles in hot water causes the labels to fall off without leaving any adhesive residue behind. The water itself can be reused indefinitely because there is no contamination to worry about.

It turns out that a few brands are already using these labels. Heineken is one of them. As long as the company can get the majority of its bottles back from consumers, it would seem they have an effective way to recycle them in perpetuity. Heineken’s dependence on new glass bottles would ultimately be reduced.

Getting People to Do It at Home

Imagine applying wash-off labels to all sorts of food and beverage packages with the expectation that consumers would remove the labels at home. At the same time labels are being removed, the packages can be thoroughly cleaned to remove all food contamination. Then it is off to the recycling facility.

In theory, this sort of thing should work just fine. But in practice, it does not work that way. Consumers already have the opportunity to decontaminate many of the plastics they recycle. But they do not take the time or make the effort. Thus, municipal recycling loads often arrive at processing facilities too contaminated to work with.

It Works in Post-Industrial Recycling

What bottlers do with wash-off labels could revolutionize postconsumer plastic and glass recycling if people were willing to put forth the effort. We know the process works because companies like Seraphim Plastics do it all the time in the post-industrial arena.

Seraphim Plastics buys scrap industrial plastic from companies in seven states. The only condition is that the plastic must already be separated and decontaminated. That way, Seraphim Plastics gets a clean load they can transport to a processing facility and immediately put through a series of grinders and magnets to produce regrind.

The company’s mechanical recycling process is simple, easy to implement, and cost-effective. It maximizes profit by minimizing the labor required to make it work. And because customers are willing to clean and sort their plastic waste ahead of time, Seraphim Plastics does not have to put in all that extra work.

The Way to Recycle Exists

Both wash-off labels and Seraphim Plastics’ mechanical recycling process demonstrate that there is a way to recycle plastic and glass. So the real question is whether the will to do so exists. It is there at the industrial level. Not so much at the consumer level. Hopefully the introduction of wash-off labels will at least encourage more recycling in the bottled beverage space.

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